


a little unusual and a lot to deal with (but I love him anyway)

by HeLovedYou



Series: CapIM TRB 2020 [6]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Capwolf, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Full Shift Werewolves, Getting Together, Insecure Steve Rogers, M/M, Pining, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25767169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeLovedYou/pseuds/HeLovedYou
Summary: Who the hell let the- werewolf out?!
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: CapIM TRB 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858039
Comments: 8
Kudos: 123
Collections: 2020 Cap/Iron Man Tiny Reverse Bang





	a little unusual and a lot to deal with (but I love him anyway)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Relaxing Bath [!Art]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24818647) by [DarthBloodOrange (DepressingGreenie)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressingGreenie/pseuds/DarthBloodOrange). 



> Art that inspired this is linked above, it’s really cute and wholesome :)  
> Thank you to [angstony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstony/pseuds/angstony) for the wonderful beta <33

Steve had been quiet when the Avengers had first formed and kept to himself mostly. At first, Tony brushes it off as him being a stuck up, self-righteous prick who—while Tony was born with a silver spoon in his mouth—most definitely has a silver shovel shoved up his ass. That all changes after a late-night encounter of the nightmare fuelled kind, and Tony is suddenly and quite rudely reminded that the good captain has a lot to work through. To him, World War 2 had been last month, so that on top of the seventy-year time skip was likely to make a guy quiet at best and downright depressed at worst. After that little revelation, Tony eases his foot off the “sarcastic asshole” pedal and moves, grudgingly, to the “friendly teammate” one instead. Since then, their rocky relationship slowly but surely began to smooth over and Tony surprises himself by actually enjoying the captain's - Steve’s - company. When he isn’t brooding, the man has a shockingly wicked sense of humour and picks up on things lightning fast, making him an excellent conversationalist even by Tony’s standards.

All in all, Tony thinks their relationship is going well, would even dare to say they’re friends. Steve starts to open up, revealing little bits of himself as Tony reciprocates in kind; they continue this pattern until they know each other’s go to coffee orders and fighting styles almost as well as they know their own. So yes. Friends. And if, every once in a while, Tony imagines something else a little different, then that’s no one’s business but his own.

Now, they are friends, Tony knows, and he isn’t an _idiot_ , he knows sometimes friends keep things from each other. Most times, it’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do, however, he hadn’t ever expected something quite this – furry.

It’s late when it happens, maybe one or two in the morning. Tony’s been in the communal kitchen, drinking warm milk instead of coffee because Steve’s bad habit of at least _trying_ to get a good night's sleep is starting to rub off on him. As far as he knows, he’s the only one up, his usual night time companion out in SHIELD related business and the rest of the Tower’s occupants asleep on their respective floors. He breathes in the quiet and tries to tell himself it’s peaceful and not eerie. Peaceful.

It remains peaceful for several long moments, right up until two things happen, right on top of each other.

The first that Tony registers is a loud noise down the hall, a _thud_ followed by something that sounds worryingly like a door being ripped from its hinges. The next is Fury’s voice over the Tower’s intercom system.

“Stark?”

“Mad Eye?” Tony calls, eyes on the dark space in front of him, wondering what the hell is about to jump out from it. As quickly and quietly as he can, he starts moving from his place at the island to back away further from the hall, signalling to JARVIS to bring up one of the suits. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with whatever the hell’s happening in my tower, would you?”

Fury only has time to utter “wolf,” before, indeed, a wolf stalks around the corner. A wolf that is easily twice the size of a regular wolf, with blonde-brown fur and piercing blue eyes that has Tony thinking of the other blond haired, blue eyed man he knows, name beginning with S and whose last name would sound really good with his tacked on the end and- and teeth. This wolf has teeth which are also twice the size of a regular wolf’s and Tony swallows. Probably not the time for that particular train of thought. The aforementioned teeth are currently on vicious display as the wolf drips saliva in a trail along the floor. The wolf looks right at him, taking him in for a moment, before- relaxing. Its hackles come down and its ears prick back up happily. When the armour rushes through the window, the wolf growls softly as it encases Tony but then cocks his head and moves forward, heaving itself onto its hind legs and bringing its forelegs down to rest on the shoulders of the armour, effectively pinning Tony in a standing position to the floor.

Tony braces himself, repulsors at the ready as the wolf opens its great maw and- does not rip his head off. Tony watches in utter bafflement as the wolf licks a stripe up the faceplate, and seemingly satisfied, pushes itself off the armour and curls up protectively at his feet.

“Uh,” Tony manages, opening the faceplate and staring down at the creature who simply looks up at him with those bright blue eyes.

He hears Fury heave a sigh over the speakers.

“Mad Eye? You can explain this?”

There’s a pause before Fury sighs again, muttering resignedly “You had better come in, Stark.”

Barely twenty minutes later, Tony touches down on the landing pad outside the SHIELD headquarters in Washington. The suit opens and he walks briskly to the conference room, eager for whatever explanation Fury has to offer. He hurries around the corner and sees the rest of the Avengers, bar Steve, through the glass doors, all gathered around the meeting table. He frowns as the door slides open and looks around.

“No Cap?” he asks as he throws himself into the nearest available seat. Surely, if the rest of the team was here, Fury would have called Steve in from whatever mission he’s on?

Fury ignores his question in favour of asking one of his own. “The wolf?”

Tony shrugs, not missing Fury’s clumsy attempt to dodge his question.

“Licked me half to death, looked sad when I flew off, last I heard it was napping in our living area. JARVIS is monitoring it.”

There’s a moment of silence as Fury takes in this new information, mild interest settling across his features. Then he sighs and opens up the files in front of him and starts the most batshit crazy explanation Tony’s ever heard in his life.

So. Werewolf. Capwolf? Whatever. Their fine and fearless leader, as it turns out, is both a super soldier and a supernatural creature of the night. Who would’a thunk.

When the Avengers trudge back into the Tower, the sun is starting to crawl over the horizon and they’re greeted by a decidedly naked Steve Rogers. Right. Because for three nights a month, Steve spends his time as a Capwolf, shredding any clothes he’s wearing to pieces because his body physically turns into a wolf. God. How is this real?

The next afternoon, Tony enters the communal kitchen to find Steve surrounded by the rest of the Avengers. They all look up when he walks in, five sets of eyes absently tracking his movements to the coffee machine. Clint finally breaks the silence.

“So now that Sleeping Beauty has arrived-” he turns expectantly to Steve, practically vibrating with excited curiosity. Tony will admit he’s pretty interested as well. Fury’s clinical explanation late last night/early this morning was minimal, what with him refusing to disclose much without Rogers’ knowledge or consent.

He turns to Steve as he starts his own halting explanations, about how one of the serum’s unforeseen side effects was a textbook (or, Tony supposed, fantasy-book) case of lycanthropy.

“Fury thought I should have told you from the start, but-” Steve shrugs “-we were all new and I thought it would be best to wait until we knew each other. And then- there just never seemed a good time to bring it up. I should have told you at the start and I’m sorry, I hope it doesn’t affect the team.”

Tony gives Steve’s shoulder a friendly pat and watches as the rest of the team give their assurances that, no, this would affect neither their working nor personal relationships, as long as he didn’t bite any of them. Steve smiles tiredly at the joke, and after that, everyone settles into comfortable conversation, the tension from earlier bleeding out until it’s almost like it was never there.

Almost.

Tony doesn’t miss how Steve maintains a steady conversation with almost everyone but him, how he keeps flicking his eyes to him every few minutes, almost like a nervous tick. Eventually, the dishes move from the island to the sink and Bruce complains about how the dishwasher is _right there_ as he places his glass precariously on top of Thor’s before walking out. He’s followed by Natasha and Clint and Tony turns to see Thor giving Steve an enthusiastic pat on the back before he follows in their wake.

Steve shuffles in his seat, then looks up, determination lighting his eyes.

“Tony-” he starts before Tony holds up his hand to stop him.

“Apology accepted.”

Steve frowns and opens his mouth but Tony interrupts him again.

“I get why you didn’t tell us. It’s not exactly something any of us were expecting.”

He looks into blue eyes that he suddenly realises are very close. He steps back hastily.

Steve shakes his head. “No, Tony, you don’t- you’re one of my best friends in this world.”

At that, Tony looks up, startled. Steve continues.

“What we have means a lot to me, and I should have told you. I was scared that you’d-” Steve swallows as he forces the words out and Tony feels something in his chest ache. “-that this would be too much. I should have known better – known you better. I’m sorry. I’m grateful that you seem so ready to accept this, but I understand if you need time and space to adjust.”

Tony frowns and moves back into Steve’s space, his own awkward feelings be damned. He grasps Steve’s arms and looks up, mustering up all the sincerity he can.

“Look, is this unusual? A lot to take in? Yeah, of course, I mean you’re a capwolf. But Bruce is a giant green rage monster stored inside a five-foot six human, Thor is a literal Norse god, Natasha is probably a psychic and Clint is Clint. We’re all a little unusual and a lot to deal with.”

Steve looks down at him, briefly closing his eyes, and Tony can feel the gentle puffs of breath against his face when Steve murmurs “Thank you, Tony. Really.”

And honestly, he means to reply with a friendly “No problem,” and a pat on the shoulder, but too late he realises he’s pressing his lips against Steve’s. Funnily enough, he can’t bring himself to regret it when he feels Steve very firmly kissing him back.

* * *

“Steve, stay, stay- Steve! For god’s sake, you’re not actually a dog, would you-” Tony sighs as he sits back from the bath, utterly drenched. He looks at the happy face of the wolf in front of him, tail wagging and making the bathroom, somehow, even more wet than he had when he was climbing in.

Tony pushes himself up and reaches for the shampoo, pouring it directly onto Steve’s head before lathering it up. This was Steve’s fourth full moon with the team instead of SHIELD. The first time, they had been cautious, not wanting to take for granted that Steve would recognise the rest of them as he did Tony. When a thorough licking and thumping tail confirmed that he did, they organised for the next full moon to be spent running some basic tests, taking bloods and measuring stamina and such. Steve had expressed an interest in exploring whether the wolf could be used in fights, and Tony figured it best to know what exactly they would be dealing with before any training started. The third had been the night after a battle with some alien horde and so was spent lounging around the tower. By the time the full moon rolled around this time, Tony still hadn’t had time to make any wolf friendly training equipment, so tonight, they had figured they’d try taking Steve to one of the nearby dog parks. They had found out the first time that Capwolf wasn’t actually hostile unless presented with a threat, so there was no danger. Tony organised to have the groundskeepers leave it open for them for the night and the night had been surprisingly enjoyable. Steve especially seemed to enjoy the opportunity to run around, successfully jumping in what seemed like every puddle in the park, hence Tony’s current attempt at bathing him.

“Steve, I know you can at least kind of understand me, human you told me you can. Stop trying to flood our goddamn bathroom.”

Steve tilts his head at him, resting one of his great paws on the edge on the tub. Tony watches as water drips down the side before sighing and grabbing a towel to wash the dirt from the proffered paw.

After the water gurgles down the drain, Tony manages to towel the water out of Steve’s fur before Steve wriggles out of his grasp and darts out of the en suite, bounding up onto their bed and plonking himself down to bury his snout under a pillow. Tony, knowing from past experience that there is no moving a super werewolf who’s decided he’s had enough, peels off his own water-soaked clothes and quickly rubs a towel across himself. He pads out into their bedroom, pulling on one of Steve’s t-shirts from the drawer and joining his furry form in their bed. He curls around the massive beast beside him. He may snore like the devil, but hell, Tony wouldn’t trade it for anything.

When he wakes the next morning, nose pressed to blond hair, he can’t help but wonder when the smell of wet dog started to smell like home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!


End file.
